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Thursday, 28 July 2016

NYT censorship of article

Emails
hacked from the Democratic National Committee reveal that Nicholas
Confessore suppressed information about Hillary Clinton’s victory
fund in an article he wrote about Bernie Sanders. The New York Times
political correspondent made the omissions at the request of Hillary
Clinton’s campaign lawyer, Marc E. Elias, and DNC officials.

The
emails, published by Wikileaks, also appear to show that Confessore
made other edits to the article at the request of former DNC
Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz. After Confessore’s revisions,
DNC National Press Secretary Mark Paustenbach suggested that the DNC
Chairwoman grant an off-the-record interview to a group of New York
Times writers.

In
an email to Paustenbach, Miranda writes, “We were able to keep him
from including more on the JVF, it has a mention in there, but
between us and a conversation he had with Marc Elias he finally
backed off from focusing too much on that.”

The
initials JVF stand for: joint victory fund, the name DNC staff use to
refer to the Hillary Victory Fund. On April 18, Bernie Sanders’
campaign questioned whether the DNC is using the victory fund as a
way of “improperly subsidizing Clinton’s campaign bid by paying
Clinton staffers.”

A
May, 2, Politico article suggested that state parties involved in the
joint fundraising effort may be “acting as money laundering
conduits” for the Clinton campaign. After paying into the joint
fund, the state parties involved may not see much return on their
investment.

In
Confessore’s final revision of the article, the Hillary Victory
Fund is not mentioned by name. The controversy is only alluded to in
one sentence: “The Democratic National Committee now relies on Mrs.
Clinton’s fund-raising to provide a fifth of its monthly income, an
arrangement the Sanders campaign has criticized.”

In
the same email Miranda writes, “Longabaugh also strikes a somewhat
conciliatory tone described here.” Miranda appears to be
referencing another change the DNC requested from Confessore.

In
Wassserman-Shultz’s response to Miranda she writes, “This is an
updated version of the story from when it posted last night.
Longabaugh’s comment about being well represented on all the
committees wasn’t in that version. It should also include that each
candidate will get their proportion of the remaining 167 members of
the committee. The Chair’s At-Large appointments are only 25 on
each committee.”

The
DNC Chairwoman seems annoyed that not all of her revisions were made
by Confessore. The offending sentence appears to be: “Of 45
potential members submitted by Mr. Sanders, she (Wasserman-Shultz)
appointed just three, according to Mr. Sanders’s campaign.”

Within
two hours of Wasserman-Shultz’s email, Paustenbach wrote to Miranda
again. In an email titled “DWS Media Strategy,” Paustenbach
recommends that the DNC Chairwoman do an off-the-record interview
with Confessore and his colleagues at the New York Times: Senior
Editor for Politics Carolyn Ryan and Presidential campaign
correspondent Maggie Haberman.

This
article was submitted to the Op-Ed editors of four of the United
State’s leading newpapers. They did not respond. Please spread this
information through social media.